FEATURE:
Too Good to Be Forgotten: Songs That Are Much More Than a Guilty Pleasure
The Offspring - Pretty Fly (For a White Guy)
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I need to start every one of these features…
by saying that I do not buy into the notion that there are ‘guilty pleasure’ songs. The reason I started this feature is to defend songs that have been labelled as guilty pleasures. I think that everything is valid - and one should not feel embarrassed about anything. One song that I have seen appear on lists of guilty pleasure songs is The Offspring’s Pretty Fly (For a White Guy). It definitely divided people at my school when the song arrived in 1998. I think there was this rise in Pop-Punk bands that were not quite serious; whose songs were not as gritty and real as Grunge and Alternative acts that recently ruled. Pretty Fly (For a White Guy) is the fourth track from the Californian band’s fifth studio album, Americana (1998). It was the first single from the album. It The song peaked at number fifty-three on the US Billboard Hot 100; number-five on the Billboard Hot Mainstream Rock Tracks chart and number-three on the Billboard Modern Rock Tracks chart. The song also reached number-one in ten countries. I will bring in an article that takes a closer look at the music video for the song – one that seemed fine back in 1998 but, in 2021, it might be problematic if a band put out something similar! I am not a huge fan of The Offspring, though I fondly remember the Americana album. In frontman Dexter Holland, they had a charismatic frontman who could write interesting songs. I like The Kids Aren't Alright, and Why Don’t You Get a Job? To me, Pretty Fly (For a White Guy) is the band’s best track.
It is a shame the Americana album did not get better reviews. I think it is an album that has some really strong singles, but the rest of the album is a bit patchy. This is what AllMusic wrote when they reviewed the album:
“With integrity intact and a hearty combination of poppy punk and wit throughout, the Offspring's fifth album is a raucous ride through America as seen through the eyes of a weary, but still optimistic, young kid. Riffs on political correctness, '70s radio fodder, and suburban disquiet are spread thick on Americana. If the band's targets seem a bit simple and predictable, its music rarely is. The SoCal roots aren't played to a fault, the blend of salsa and alterna-rock sounds natural, and the Offspring pretty much laugh at their culture, as well as themselves, the entire time. Best track is "Pretty Fly (For a White Guy)," which manages to bridge Def Leppard and Latin hip-hop (and the musical timeline they represent) and, in the process, disrobes Middle America's average white teen's quick fascination with and instant disposability of a once-regional heritage. With Americana, the Offspring are merely contributing their part”.
If you have dismissed Pretty Fly (For a White Guy) or thought it was a bit of a joke song, I would recommend you listen again! It does have humour, but I also think that it is a strong song that does not sound too dated.
I think a lot of my old school friends who disliked Pretty Fly (For a White Guy) back in 1998 have softened to the song now. If one takes it as a bit of a novelty song or something not taking itself too seriously, I think you can enjoy The Offspring’s smash. The band were not really trying to be hardcore or as reputable as a lot of other Rock and Punk bands. I want to source from a Kerrang! article that provides us with some facts and figures regarding The Offspring and their best-known song:
“0.09
The video’s White Guy is portrayed by actor Guy Cohen, who ended up being chosen for the role after Offspring frontman Dexter Holland’s first choice, Seth Green, was unavailable. Green had played a similar role in the teen comedy Can’t Hardly Wait that summer. Cohen ended up going out on tour with the band and coming out during that song, doing silly dances to rapturous response. “I do The Running Man, I do the Roger Rabbit, I get down on the floor and freak the ground – oh man, people just explode!” he told Spin. Check out this live performance from 1999 featuring Cohen really going for it, as well as a lot of focus on Higgins X‑13, the band’s touring backup singer and percussionist and unofficial fifth member.
0.49
While Dexter, Noodles and guitarist Greg K have been with the band consistently for three and a half decades, they’ve been through a few drummers. Original drummer James Lilja left in 1987 to become an oncologist. Last year he was on trial for malpractice, when a juror had a heart attack, and Lilja saved his life. This led to a mistrial ruling, as the jurors would find it hard not to be biased. This is Ron Welty, the Offspring’s second sticksman, who joined at just 16 years old and spent another 16 with the band before leaving in 2003 to start his own band, Steady Ground. Atom Willard of Rocket From The Crypt, Angels And Airwaves and Against Me!-fame joined for four years, and in 2007 current drummer Pete Parada, formerly of Face To Face and Saves The Day, took over.
1.17
The ‘Give it to me, baby’ vocals are performed by Nika Futterman and Heidi Villagran. Futterman is now a successful voice actress who has worked on pretty much every big deal animated show out there, including voicing Asajj Ventress in Star Wars: The Clone Wars.
1.30
The target of the song, as Dexter told Spin, is young men who “are from, like, Omaha, Nebraska – regular white-bread boys, but who act like they’re from Compton. It’s so fake and obvious that they’re trying to have an identity. I wanted to write a song where people in high school would go, ‘I know exactly who this guy’s talking about: so-and-so in third period.’ And he’ll like it too. That’s kind of the beauty: making fun of people who don’t know they’re being made fun of.”
2.21
The sun-soaked technicolour look of the whole video was at the time something of a trademark of director McG, best known for making the two Charlie’s Angels films. McG was also briefly the frontman of Sugar Ray, a band he went on to direct videos for, as well as Sugar Ray and Korn. He made Terminator: Salvation, This Means War and The Babysitter, and executive-produced The OC (the first season of which is untouchably good).
2.35
Barely shown at any point in this video is bassist Greg K, who formed the band with Dexter in the early ’80s after the two of them met doing cross-country together in school. Greg does very few interviews and is the most reclusive member of the band, which may explain the lack of close-ups”.
There are a lot of people who dislike Pretty Fly (For a White Guy) and feel the song is a guilty pleasure – if they decide to listen to it at all! I think it is a track that is funny, catchy and has a great chorus. The video might appear a bit too raunchy or un-P.C. now, but I feel it is the perfect visual for a goofy song that documents a bit of a hopeless loser. Rather than pick away at Pretty Fly (For a White Guy) and be too harsh, put the song up and…
PHOTO CREDIT: Columbia
PUMP it up loud.